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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | October 2, 2023 08:36 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Joe Webster |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Superfund Leaching Testing |
| With the right to clean air and pure water enshrined in our state constitution, protecting Pennsylvanians from dangerous contaminants in our air, soil, and water is a prominent duty of our leaders. Current state law covers a variety of testing, cleanup, and reimbursement requirements for certain hazardous sites. However, a loophole exists that allows contaminated Superfund sites, like the 18 hazardous waste sites in Montgomery county alone, to be exempt from such testing or reimbursement. To address this issue, my bill would require the owners of Superfund sites, or identified contaminated sites, to test for leachate and runoff from those sites. In addition, owners would be required to refund the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as they do for cleanup efforts around other such sites, ensuring that state money spent to rectify this problem is returned responsibly and promptly. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund, was enacted in 1980 as a response to thousands of sites contaminated by hazardous waste dumping. Superfund allows the EPA to clean up the contaminated sites and forces the responsible parties to either perform the cleanup themselves or reimburse the government for the EPA to perform the cleanup. My bill will apply this common sense standard to testing for leaching from these sites. Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to close this dangerous loophole and further protect the health of all Pennsylvanians. |
Introduced as HB1880